Mariana Liakopoulou is a Brussels-based Markets and Policy Associate working in the EU liaison office of the European Federation of Energy Traders (EFET). In this capacity, she works on topics related to the Fit for 55 package, emissions trading, gas decarbonization and hydrogen, certification and guarantees of origin, as well as on topics related to the French and Greek power and gas markets.
As of September 2019, she has served as Research Fellow in Energy Security with the NATO Association of Canada (NAOC), producing research works pertaining to Caspian energy policy and the liberalization of the European energy markets in Southeast and Central and Eastern Europe. In January 2022, she was appointed as Energy Security Research Analyst with the NAOC.
Mariana is also Editor-in-Chief of the Palgrave Macmillan Studies in Energy Transitions series. In the context of this position, she oversees and contributes to the drafting of The Palgrave Handbook of Zero Carbon Energy Systems and Energy Transitions, a book project aiming to provide an inter- and multi-disciplinary comprehensive analysis, knowledge and overview of zero-carbon energy systems, energy transitions and related areas.
Formerly, Mariana was a consultant and member of the Roster of Experts of the Energy Community Secretariat. Before that, she was working in the Director’s Office of the European Union Agency for the Cooperation of Energy Regulators. She started out as non-resident Research Fellow in Energy Security and Geopolitics with Caspian Policy Center (Washington D.C.)
Her record of publications and public presentations comprises works for an array of industry sources, including the International Association for Energy Economics (IAEE), the United States Association for Energy Economics (USAEE), Natural Gas World, the NATO ENSEC COE’s Energy Highlights journal, Gulf Intelligence and European Gas Hub, along with frequent quotes in the media (e.g., Bloomberg, Deutsche Welle, CEENERGYNEWS).
She holds a Master’s in International Relations and European Studies from the School of Economics and Political Science of the National and Kapodistrian University of Athens. Her Master’s thesis looks into the Caspian legal status and riparian producers’ outlook with regard to the European Commission’s strategy towards the Fourth/Southern Gas Corridor.
She is fluent in English, French, Greek and Russian and has elementary knowledge of Ukrainian.
